“She added, “There is no denying that our leadership ranks are being depleted at a dizzying speed, due in part to the decision to slash promotion numbers by more than half. The Foreign Service officer corps at State has lost 60 percent of its Career Ambassadors since January. Ranks of Career Ministers, our three-star equivalents, are down from 33 to 19. The ranks of our two-star Minister Counselors have fallen from 431 right after Labor Day to 369 today — and are still falling.” MORE

“In the year since the Nov. 8, 2016 election, dread and anxiety around the world has only mounted with the realization that Trump doesn’t care for strategic alliances or multilateral solutions to global challenges. His is a zero-sum approach to world affairs in which the “winner” takes all and diplomacy is for losers.

The United States has become less respected under Trump, polls suggest, and as the president disdainfully discards the nation’s mantle of global leadership, erstwhile close allies are relying less on America and instead are going their own way.” MORE

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is reportedly pressuring President Trump to “defang” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump Russia probe by defunding it instead of firing him, according to a Politico report. MORE

President Donald Trump warned his fired National Security Adviser Mike Flynn to “stay strong” last April, and Flynn is “staying strong” by refusing a new request to appear as a witness before the Senate Intelligence committee, according to a report by CNN.

“Months before a man allegedly turned his vehicle into a weapon and plowed through a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, an article that made the rounds in conservative media encouraged readers to do something similar.” MORE

Bridgewater, New Jersey (CNN) – President Donald Trump, a man known for his bluntness, was anything but on Saturday, failing to name the white supremacists or alt-right groups at the center of violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Instead, the man whose vicious attacks against Hillary Clinton, John McCain, federal judges, fellow Republican leaders and journalists helped define him both in and out of the White House simply blamed “many sides.” MORE